Source: Mother Jones, see the full story: www.motherjones.com/photoessay…A photojournalist armed with a smart phone captures the scars and new hopes of the revolution-torn nation. Photos by Ben Lowy/Getty Reportage/Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund; Text by Mother Jones

The death of four Americans in a terrorist attack has focused attention on Benghazi in recent weeks, but while violence and political instability mark today's Libya, there is much more to be seen among the people and culture emerging from decades of life under Qaddafi. This past summer, photojournalist Ben Lowy, armed with the iPhone camera he is known to use so well, documented bombed out buildings, Libyan women voting in the first-ever democratic election, and more. Why didn't he work with fancier gear? "Small mobile phone cameras are innocuous and enable a far greater intimacy with a subject," Lowy says, noting that Libyans themselves have also done much to document their surroundings, thanks to the ubiquitous technology.

Samir, an Eritrean migrant shot in Kufra by a Libyan militia member during his trek through the desert lies on a mat in a migrant camp in Benghazi.

Tawarghan IDPs (internally displaced people) build a new home from scavenged PVC piping in a secluded displaced persons camp near Benghazi.

Libyan Federalists scream "Long Live Cyrenica," the ancient name of there state where Benghazi is based, as they flee an election polling station with voting cards and ballots to burn in Benghazi.

Libyans rejoice with song and dance along the boardwalk of Benghazi after voting for the first time in more than 40 years.

Omar, 26, sits in the car he drove to the frontlines during last year’s Libyan uprising. He refuses to fix his windshield. “The sniper’s round went past my head…this car took care of me, so I can’t change it.”

Members of the Libyan Shield, the official Libyan umbrella military made up of numerous militias, patrol the volatile desert region bordering the Gaddafi loyalist enclave of Bani Walid and revolutionary Misrata in Bir Dufan.

Zakaria Muhammad, 28 was gravely wounded in April 2011. A howitzer round fired by the infamous Khamis Brigade took his leg, arm, part of his hand, and left him with a brain injury.

In front of this, it is hard to say what I feel, in a sense totally speechless for the work that was done here... and on the other hand, extremely disappointed and sad about what we're doing to each other...